Center's research quietly impacts city's growth by Clift Johnson Looking closely at some of the policy moves made by government and industry jn the Portland metropolitan area, one can detect the fine hand of PSU's Center for Urban Studies. Since 1965, faculty and selected students in the center, part of PSU's School of Urban and Public AHairs, have cooperated in cond on a wide- ment of public policy s. Responding continualty to the needs of PSU's surrounding metropolitan environment, the center. directed by Or. Kenneth Dueker. specializes in urban policy analysis, government program evaluation, urban and regional planning. economic and community devek>pment analysis, and public financial management studies. Faculty who commonly participate in the center's research projects and planning studies are drawn from several social science disciplines. urban studies and public administration. The entire range of university resources, including its faculty I graduate research assistants, computer facilities and library services, is available to the center. Tracking transit Perhaps the best-known subject of the center's current studies is its recently concluded assessment of the Ponland Transit Mall, which analyzed such factors as effects on downtown business, bus ridership, and employees who work in the immediate area. As a result of the cooperative research venture, the center, the City of ponland, Metro and Tri-Met have leamed that the mall has wor1<ed to speed the movement of bus riders traveling on and through S.W. 5th and 6th Avenues in downtown Portland, and "... has proven to be a good pubfic investment.,. Primary beneficiaries of the mall were determined to be the bus riders and Tri-Met itself, with downtown business interests positively affected to a lesser degree. The new study indicated the mall's presence has increased traHic, but not congestion in their area, thus preventing downtown from declining while helping major retailers maintain their competitive position with metro-area shopping cent""'. The study also Indicates the mall may be nearing Its designed carrying capacity earlier than its expected lifespan, despite the relief offered by the Banfield light rail and articulated buses. The center's involvement in mass transit study wilt continue with the establishment of a new Transit Research and Management Development Center .t PSU. One of only eight schools In the nation to receive 550,000 In funding from the federal Urban Mass Transportation Administration to set up the new program, the center expects to receive a $125,OOO-per·year grant wh~h will open the center's doors for its first year of operation, Its establishment is designed to help meet the entry-level and middle managerial resource needs of the rapidty changing transit industry during the next 20 years. by becoming a major training and research resource in the Portland metropolitan area. The new center is expected to open in late February, l'i'l • • and will be co-directed by Dr. Dueker and Dr. Sheldon Edner, research associate at the Center for Urban Studies. Nuts and bolts Elsewhere, a study just completed by the center for the Port of Portland and the Portland Development Commission will help those agencies determine which goods could be produced locally that are now imported by other local manufacturers. Preliminary study findings show that fitling these gaps in local industry by expanding existing businesses, a concept known as Mimport substiMion," also could increase manufacturing employment in the Portland area if the study's suggestions were tully implemented. Identified In the study as "excellent prospects" for new local industry aUraction or expansion are: screw machine products plus manufacture of botts, nuts and screws, electric lighting and wiring equipment, electrical industrial apparatus, and metaiworl<ing machinery and equipment. By utilizing the expertise of the center's Or, James G. Strathman, a visiting assistant professor of urban studies and planning at PSU, the Port and the Development Commission were able to achieve the research results they needed at great economy to themselves, said Dueker. The $5,000 study would otherwise have cost the agencies much more if done by professionals outside the region, he noted. "We see Strathman as a good example of the type of professional needed to research the important economic development issues in the Northwest," Dueker commented. PSU', don.r Impact Strathman also has completed a special study for PSU which showed that the University had a 5185-mililon total spending impact on the Portland metropolitan area economy during a 1981-82 fiscal year period. This figure did not include PSU's prime economic contribution, of course, which is the long-range economic value of educaUon itself. Thus. the absence of PSU ". ,.woukt have a major impact on the metro area," conctuded Or. James Todd, vice president of finance and administration at PSU, who reviewed the study's findings. The nearty $72,000,000 spent by PSU and its students during the 1981-82 fiscal year generated a beneficial "ripple effect" on the local economy, resulting in rounds of further spending in the community totaling the $18S-million. An even more accurate picture of the greater Portland area's economy is expected in a few months when the Urban Studies Center finishes formulating its own input-output statistical measurement model, according to Strathman. rKJ l!fb i "'-t·,.. . , - Tulng and mapping The center is expected 10 begin work soon on another study which should determine whether the residents of Washington County's lnoorporated areas are suffering from "'double taxation." Rrst, PSU researchers will determine variations among jurisdictions in the costs of providing urban services in the populous Oregon county. They will take a look at possible duplication of tax payments by residents of the incorporated areas who must not only pay for their own services, like police and road maintenance, but pay for part of the cost of providing such services in the county's unincorporated areas as well. The study will be directed by Dr. Edner. Now nearing comP'etion is another study involving the center and PSU's Department of Geography under Dr. Richard Lycan, which puts their combined knowledge of the latest in computer-assisted mapping technology to good use at Tri·Met, Metro and the Portland Public Schools. As a result of the center's recommendations, the state's largest school system will be able to react more quicldy to ongoing changes In the home locations of its students. thus simplifying the re-drawing of district boundaries and changes in bus routes. Meanwhile, Dr. Dueker has recently served as a member of a prestigious nationwide research panel charged by the National Academy of Sciences with making recommendations for a better land information system which could be employed throughout the United States. •••• • • II The Future For all its varied invooements with local agencies stretching back to 1965, the Center for Urban Studies continually faces the problem of maintaining its research capacity to address Issues as they emerge. For now, the center funcOOns on a project-by.project basis, aided by a modest level of University support. Dueker hopes that in succeeding years, the center's capabilities witl become even more recognized and supported by agencies and industries in the region. They need to be more willing to invest in the process of building the university's research capacity, he added, noting n is In their long-range Interest to see a strong research--oriented university, 3
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